Thursday, December 29, 2016

Sigrid Fry-Revere writes to me about her updated living donor proposal:
"The big advantage of this proposal are as follows: 1) It helps those in need of organs who need help most — those at the front of the waiting list. These people, if they had a way of finding a living organ donor on their own, would have done so before they made it to the front of the waiting list 2) It follows the distributive justice model of the original NOTA and UNOS design (same as for deceased donation — help those in most need first). 3) Because it doesn’t help everyone, it is much more affordable (possibly even saves money within the first year instead of just 5 or 10 years down the line). 4) It can be phased in without creating a whole new bureaucracy because it includes incentives for OPOs to do the work. And, 5) perhaps most importantly, this proposal could be implemented under the current law through regulation. It could be done by Congress, but does not require an act of Congress."

The highlights:
"Specific Elements: • Follow original intent of NOTA and have Medicare help patients in greatest medical need first and according to UNOS current wait list criteria by:
(a) paying expenses of donors willing to give to top match in their region, and
(b) paying the Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs), which currently
match deceased donor organs with recipients, to arrange living matches as
well.
• Create living donor registry that allows donors at any time after their donation to put themselves AND / OR one relative to the front of the list in the region where the recipient lives (e.g. voucher system, but national. Waiting list points to be determined by UNOS)."
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